Friday, December 29, 2006

Happy Place

concert review: THE JESUS & MARY CHAINMAS Not-so-Silent Tribute Night @ The Silver Dollar(Toronto, Ontario), December 29, 2006

The Disraelis @ The Silver Dollar: photo by Michael Ligon

I made it down to the Silver Dollar yesterday evening for its "THE JESUS & MARY CHAINMAS Not-so-Silent Tribute Night" featuring a variety of local acts performing their favourite Jesus and Mary Chain tunes. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, it was a fantastic evening, although there were several highlights. Below is the set times/set list that Dan Burke posted on Stille Post prior to the show:

Here are the set times I thought might be good:
----------
10 p.m. - THE AIRFIELDS: Happy Place, Everything Is Alright When You're Down.
10:15 - ANGEL KISS
10:30 - PELHAM 1.2.3 - Birthday, Rollecoaster
10:45 - MIC HELL - Perfume, I Love Rock and Roll, I Hate Rock and Roll
11 - IN SUPPORT OF HOLLOWPHONIC - Coast to Coast and possibly April Skies and/or Sunray.
11:15 -- LIPSTICK MACHINE - Living End, Cut Dead.
11:30 - THE ASSISTANTS - Teenage Lust, Never Saw It Coming, Just Like Honey
11:45 - MILLIONS OF CATS w/LESLIE KURU - Cracking Up, Broken Lil Sister, Perfume.
12 - LUNCHMEAT - Sometimes Always, Head On, Gimme Hell
12:15 THE DISRAELIS - Darklands and _____________
12:30 OCTOBER ACTION - Living End, Something I Can't Have, Deviant Slice
12:45 DAN BURKE w/ JON S. on guitar and.... Reverence, Blues From a Gun


The only band I knew and heard their music was The Airfields, and I'd only had heard some of the other band names in passing. It turns out that The Airfields were the definite highlight of the evening as The Airfields' penchant for sweet indiepop melodies was a perfect fit for JAMC's tunes. I loved how their drummer bashed away on the drum kit with mallets a la Bobby Gillespie while Airfields/Diableros guitarist Ian Jackson lept into a fury of guitar strumming and feedback. After their set, Lead Airfields David Lush said something about the new Reid brothers project Sister Vanilla record being shit. I think I still want to hear their record before I pass judgement. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

The trio, Lipstick Machine, bashed away with garagey enthusiasm on a few Psychocandy-era tracks.

In Support of Hollowphonic, which I believe was made up of members of both Hollowphonic and In Support Of Living, were fantastic, instead using an electronic drum kit rather than the real drum kit set up behind them which most of the other bands were using for their set. They played an invigorating version of "Just Like Honey".

The Assistants reprised "Just Like Honey" but played down the shoegazer/feedback tendencies for a cleaner, Brit-pop sound. Interesting.

There were a few bands who I don't think were listed in Mr. Burke's list above. There was a band(a trio) that featured 2/3 of Lipstick Machine, but were called The Rosebuds(not the Merge Records one). There was also a duo utilizing a laptop with pre-recorded drum tracks while they played guitar. Anyone know their name? They performed "About You" off of "Darklands".

Unfortunately, I didn't stick around for the entire night - after about 2 1/2 hours of JAMC, I'd had my fill. I guess I missed October Action and whatever Dan Burke did to end the night. I'm glad I stuck around for The Disraelis' set though. Lead vocalist/bassist Cameron took the tribute to it's full effect, donning black sunglasses for the entire set, and then proclaiming the first song of their mini-set, "Darklands", the "greatest song" of all time. And for a moment, it felt like it was.

Overall, a fantastic idea and a fantastic night. It was great how they set up and tore down the equipment/instruments between sets - damn, I wish every concert could be like that. I hope the tribute night happens next year.

Some photos to follow. Yahoo! is on the fritz. Update: Here's the photos - not much though.

Update: I just realized that JAMC's Jim Reid is 45 years old today, so Happy Birthday Jim!

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